Sunday, 9 September 2012

Making a door and expanding the bathroom

The next wall I put into my house was between bedroom and bathroom. I wanted a real door between the rooms, one that can be opened. I know you get those from dollhouse suppliers, but I have already explained that for me the challenge and the pleasure was, and still is, to make things myself. I had a vague idea about how I wanted it, and I couldn't find any instructions, except in Eva Malmsten's book again, on how you decorate a door. I had to make the whole wall with the door in it before I put in the wall into the house. It took many hours and days of frustration.

The door frame is made from two photo frames, and they dictated the size of the door. It didn't work at all the way I had expected it, but after may trials and errros I managed it. I made the door from cardboard and glued on pieces of wood for decoration, as in Eva's book. The large panels are my favourite venetian blind, and the outer panels are lolly sticks. I also used grill sticks for further effect (Eva uses spaghetti, but my princilpe is not to use anything edible). The hinges are real, very very tiny, bought at my local ironmonger's. Took hours to fix. The door knob is a paper clip.

This is the view of the bathroom

There are quite a lot of details I need to explain. The tiles are from ebay of course, but they come in sheets. I have seen dollhouses on the web where people have just pasted the whole sheet on the wall. It doesn't look natural. Instead, I made two double rows of tiles and between them pasted single tiles, one by one. Yes, it took a long time, but you must agree that the effect is nice. The tiny corner shelf on the left is made from cardboard and toothpicks. It is just like the one I have in my bedroom. The lamp is made from a piece of perforated metal sheet, and I don't remember where it comes from. The basket on the right is a Christmas decoration - it was originally a bell, but I turned it upside down.

I made the washbasin from a cardboard box and glued pieces of wood just as I did with the door. I glued on the back with the mirror. The size of the mirror dictated the size of the washstand so it's a bit out of scale. The basin is a plastic jam container you get with your hotel breakfast.

The towel rack was easy to make with bits of wood and grill sticks. The shelf is also made the easiest possible way with bits of wood. The two stools are wooden candlesticks turned upside down.